Friday, August 5, 2011

One Way

I have a memory from childhood of being inside a church and I must have been in a separate room with other children and at some point I walked outside of the children's area and wound up in the main sanctuary. I recall looking toward the front and seeing a man holding a pointer to a blackboard of some kind and indicating two options: Heaven or Hell. He was loudly proclaiming his message. Heaven or Hell! The meaning at that time didn't resonate with me, but the memory has stayed so clear in my mind.

I understand now that there is a choice to make. Which path will you take? Are there many roads to Heaven? or just one. There are those who say that the Bible was written by men and therefore subject to all kinds of mistakes. However I would point out the fact that Jesus himself taught from scripture. Say what you will, but that validates Old Testament scripture for me. As far as the New Testament scripture, several of these men were people who walked with Christ and I certainly trust their accounts. Written by men? Yes. God's words for us to live by? Absolutely. Everything Jesus ever said testifies to the truth of that. Not to mention the fact that he proved his authority by his ability to heal, restore, remove disease, bring life back to a dead body, and cast demons out which were screaming and shaking with fear. Jesus life, his ministry, his death on the cross, followed by his resurrection. What other possible conclusion could there be? He is a King of a Kingdom not of this world, just as he stated.

More than one way? or just one. Jesus referred he to himself as "the gate." He said that no one comes to the Father but by him. There is no other way: He stated it clearly. "I am the way..." In my mind, in order to accept that there might be some other way, in order to believe that, you would have to say that you are in effect rejecting Christ. That is not a good place to be in my opinion.

Heaven or Hell? Life or death? We can choose. Am I saying, do I have the nerve to infer that someone might go to Hell? I don't have to say it. Jesus himself spoke of hell as a reality.

If you doubt what you've read here, please do one thing. Read scripture. Read it with a prayer that God will open your understanding to what you need. God's love is beyond what we can with a human mind and heart understand. He is love. He knows us. He understands us, and that's good, because it means He knows how to help us.

I remember myself as that child wandering into a sanctuary and not at all able to comprehend the concept of Heaven or Hell. I am so grateful that God in his merciful love revealed himself to me as Jesus being my only anchor to Him in this life and beyond.